It has been a while I haven’t updated my blog, as I was swamped up splitting my 24-hours on preparing my thesis defense, watching Korean drama, and sleeping.
Last summer, August 2019, when visiting Budapest for vacation, I accidentally found a credit card. When purchasing my bus ticket, I chose the card as my payment method. However, the transaction succeeded before I put my card. There was a credit card still inserted on the ticket machine that has paid my ticket. As I didn’t want other people to misuse the card, I waited near the machine ticket a few minutes, hoping somebody would appear looking for his card. I decided to find a place near the ticket machine to find the owner with the help of technology. Am I that creepy? I used Facebook to find people with the name displayed on the cardholder. I found three Americans with the same names and sent them a message. Hoping they will notice it soon so that I could return his card before I left Budapest the next day. However, no one replied to my message. Probably, the message went to spam as we were not friends. The card is still with me. Until 3 months later, the owner replied to me with kind words: “Anyway, thank you so much. It makes me believe in humanity and goodness in the world”. He also didn’t want me to pay his money that I used for my one trip ticket. Because he is nice!
Two weeks before my thesis defense (3rd June 2020), I visited one of the red zone (worst cases of COVID-19). I have to attend the internship kick-off and also to pick up the access card and laptop. It was the first time I revisited Kista after being locked down in my 16 meters square apartment for 3 months. Since the area is popular with halal groceries, I decided to buy a bunch of groceries before going home. As I was carrying much stuff, I didn’t realize that I dropped my wallet somewhere. Near the subway, I checked my purse to get my transportation card. I realized that I couldn’t find it anywhere in my bag.
I was panicking since there are many important cards (debit card, transportation card, resident permit, student card, library card, and Swedish ID card) there. A few minutes later, I got a phone call. She spoke Swedish, which I didn’t understand at all. I assumed she probably found my wallet. I talked to her in English, asking whether she found my wallet. And yes! I was lucky! She told me to come back to the grocery store to return my wallet. There was no mobile phone information in my wallet; however, since she was very nice, she tried to find my information on hitta.se. I felt lucky that Sweden has an open data, where our personal data (birthdate, address, phone number, who you live with, and even our apartment price). I also felt lucky that someone who found my wallet is a nice lady. I couldn’t imagine if someone abused my debit card as I put my money for the visa extension requirement.
From my stories, I believed that if we help someone without expecting any return, Allah will pay us back, through someone else. Give first, then take later.
Ria Ratna Sari 